U.S. patent number 4,506,810 [Application Number 06/397,862] was granted by the patent office on 1985-03-26 for dosage dispenser device.
This patent grant is currently assigned to L'Oreal. Invention is credited to Antonin Goncalves.
United States Patent |
4,506,810 |
Goncalves |
March 26, 1985 |
Dosage dispenser device
Abstract
A device for dispensing a viscous product comprises a
cylindrical barrel having a piston sealingly slidable therewithin
under the action of a reciprocating rack actuated by a
manually-operable push-button. The piston includes a sealing skirt
which is separate from the catch-engagement lips which allow
unidirectional entrainment of the piston by the reciprocating rack,
and it serves to seal the piston to the rack to prevent wastage of
product.
Inventors: |
Goncalves; Antonin (Groslay,
FR) |
Assignee: |
L'Oreal (Paris,
FR)
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Family
ID: |
26222481 |
Appl.
No.: |
06/397,862 |
Filed: |
July 13, 1982 |
Foreign Application Priority Data
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Jul 21, 1981 [FR] |
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81 14132 |
Jun 29, 1982 [FR] |
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82 11422 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
222/391; 222/543;
74/128 |
Current CPC
Class: |
A45D
40/02 (20130101); B65D 83/0022 (20130101); Y10T
74/1529 (20150115) |
Current International
Class: |
A45D
40/02 (20060101); B65D 83/00 (20060101); B65D
083/00 () |
Field of
Search: |
;401/179,180
;604/209,210,224 ;222/153,391,392,543,179.5,386,340
;74/128,167 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Foreign Patent Documents
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11822 |
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Nov 1979 |
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EP |
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28727 |
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May 1981 |
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EP |
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3007954 |
|
Sep 1981 |
|
DE |
|
850458 |
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Sep 1939 |
|
FR |
|
1519772 |
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Feb 1968 |
|
FR |
|
1596074 |
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Jul 1970 |
|
FR |
|
Primary Examiner: Skaggs; H. Grant
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Cushman, Darby & Cushman
Claims
I claim:
1. A dispenser for a viscous product comprising:
(a) a substantially rigid barrel having an open end and having
towards the other end an inner wall partition provided with a
passage opening, said barrel being a molded component and defining
a compartment for containing the product to be dispensed;
(b) means defining a discharge passage for said product and adapted
to be mounted on said open end of said barrel;
(c) manually operable push button means at the other end of the
barrel and integral with a rack passing through said passage
opening, in order to displace said rack between a first and a
second position, said rack having teeth;
(d) a molded piston mounted for sliding in a leakproof manner with
frictional contact along the said barrel from the inner wall
partition to the open end of the barrel, said piston comprising
molded integrally with it:
sealing lip means adjacent the center of the piston bordering a
rack passage and providing a seal between the rack and the piston,
said lip means being provided at the lower part of a skirt
connected by walls, which converge toward said other end, to a
cylindrical wall of the piston;
catch-engagement means comprising elastic flap means adapted to
engage the teeth of the rack, said elastic flap means being
convergent toward said other end of said barrel to define a catch
engagement lip which is adjacent said sealing lip, said
catch-engagement means being effective to impart to the piston the
movement of the rack from said first position to said second
position, but being flexible so as to move over the rack teeth when
said rack moves toward said other end of the barrel, said piston
being of a size that said piston is insertable through said open
end of said barrel and said rack being insertable through the other
end of said barrel and through said passage opening in said
piston.
2. A device according to claim 1, wherein the piston has a
substantially cylindrical central skirt defining the rack passage,
said skirt having an edge which faces said product-receiving
compartment of the barrel and converges to form the sealing lip
means.
3. A device according to claim 2, wherein said piston includes a
cylindrical wall having a surface facing the interior of said
barrel, said surface of said piston having first and second
peripheral lips for sealing between the barrel and said piston,
said piston having at one end thereof a first face and at an
opposite end thereof a second face with said first and second
peripheral lips being nearer said first face than said second face
of said piston, said skirt being nearer to said second face of said
piston than said first face.
4. A device according to claim 1, wherein said piston carries
mounting skirt means, and wherein there are several said
catch-engagement lips, each formed by the first end of a said
elastic flap whose second end is integral with said mounting skirt
means carried by the piston.
5. A device according to claim 4, wherein said mounting skirt means
comprises two mounting skirt portions and wherein there are two
diametrically opposite said catch-engagement flaps carried by
diametrically opposite said mounting skirt portions.
6. A device according to any one of claims 1, 2, 4 or 5 wherein the
piston comprises on its circumference lip means to seal between the
said piston and the inner wall of the barrel.
7. A device according to one of claims 1, 2, 4, or 5 wherein spring
means are provided, said spring means comprise several elastic
strips carried by the push button and being disposed alongside the
rack.
8. A device according to one of claims 1, 2, 4, or 5 wherein spring
means are provided said barrel including an inner partition
adjacent said first end thereof, said spring means bears on said
inner partition, and said inner partition is provided with a
central passage to receive the rack, and said inner partition is
frusto-conical and converges in the direction of said second end of
the barrel.
9. A device according to claim 8 wherein said barrel has a
cylindrical side wall, and said inner partition has an inner
annular rib near said cylindrical wall of said barrel to serve as a
stop for said spring means for the rack.
Description
DESCRIPTION
The present invention relates to a dosage dispenser device, and in
particular to a device capable of dispensing precise doses of high
viscosity products, such as pastes, creams, toothpastes or liquid
soaps.
There is already known from French Pat. No. 1,596,074 a dosage
dispenser device for viscuous products, comprising a substantially
rigid barrel containing the products to be dispensed, an outlet
opening for the said products, and means which may be actuated
manually for dispensing the product, these manually actuatable
means consisting of a piston displaceable within the barrel, an
actuator rack rod passing through the piston and integral with a
push button allowing it to be reciprocably displaced
translationally within the barrel, and a catch engagement element
carried by the piston imparting thereto the forward movement of the
rack but not the return movement, the push button being pushed back
into the return direction by a spring applied under the push
button.
The piston of the device described in said French Pat. No.
1,596,074 has a central portion composed of radial strips supported
on the notches of the rack. These radial strips ensure the seal
between the piston and the rack, but since they simultaneously
ensure the catch function, it goes without saying that they cannot
seal completely, since the paste product contained in the barrel
has a tendency to escape through the central portion of the piston
on each actuation of the push button, because the strips will then
disengage themselves from the rack notches. In these circumstances,
when the piston arrives at the end of its travel a certain quantity
of the product has not been dispensed. Moreover, the paste product
is not really protected from the air and this may adversely affect
its proper preservation.
The object of the present invention is to overcome this drawback
with a dosage dispenser which is simple, practical, reliable,
particularly small and cheap enough to be disposable.
Accordingly, the present invention provides a dispenser for viscous
products comprising:- a substantially rigid barrel defining a
compartment for containing the product to be dispensed; a discharge
passage for dispensing said product outside the barrel; a piston
slidable within said barrel in a leakproof manner with frictional
resistance towards the discharge passage; a rack extending within
the said barrel over practically the whole length thereof and
passing through said piston, said rack being capable of
displacement between two positions; a manually operable push button
at one end of the barrel and integral with the said rack in order
to displace the rack between said two positions, said push button
being spring biased for return movement; a sealing lip at the
centre of the piston bounding a passage for the rack and forming a
seal between the rack and the piston, the outer diameter of the
rack and the diameter of the inner opening of said sealing lip
being such that the rack passes through the piston in a practically
leakproof manner, but with low or substantially zero friction; and
a catch engagement element integral with the piston and formed by
at least one elastic flap sloping towards the rack and having been
moulded integrally with the piston and having its end or ends
intended to cooperate with the successive notches of the rack
constituting a catch-engagement lip which is independent from the
sealing lip, whereby said at least one catch engagement flap
imparts to the piston the forward movement of the rack but not the
return thereof, and repeated depression of the push button is
effective for dispensing doses of the product in a repetitive
manner through the said discharge passage.
Preferably the piston has a central skirt to receive the rack and
the edging of this skirt, on the side of the compartment wherein
the product is located, contracts to form the sealing lip.
More preferably there are two engagement lips each formed by the
end of one of two elastic flaps whose other ends are integral with
the end of a skirt, or parts of a skirt, carried by the piston.
Advantageously the catch comprises two diametrically opposite said
elastic flaps to impart to the piston a driving-in force applied at
its centre which does not tend to unbalance it or to cause it to
jam. In this case provision is advantageously made for two
diametrically opposite skirt portions for fixing the two elastic
flaps which form the catch.
In the known way, the piston comprises on its periphery at least
one lip intended to ensure the seal between the said piston and the
inner wall of the cylindrical barrel, the piston being capable of
sliding with friction within the said barrel. According to a
particular embodiment the piston is constituted by a cylindrical
wall carrying at its top part two peripheral lips ensuring the seal
between the barrel and the piston and at its bottom part two
diametrically opposite skirts, each formed by a cylindrical skirt
portion situated in the extension of the cylindrical wall, and by a
wall sloping towards the rack. The abovementioned two sloping walls
are interconnected by a wall which is perpendicular to the piston
axis, this wall having a central perforation edged by the skirt
carrying the sealing lip.
The rack has at least one plane of symmetry and preferably an axis
of symmetry of revolution.
The spring is desirably moulded integrally with the push button and
the rack.
In a particularly worthwhile variant of the invention the device
may be made as four moulded components of a plastic material, that
is to say: a cylindrical barrel having an open end and having
towards the other end, and at a certain distance from the latter,
an inner wall provided with a passage opening for the rack; an
integrally moulded hinged stopper capable of being fixed,
preferably by catch engagement, on the open end of the barrel; a
push button-rack unit, which is also integrally moulded, having an
axial rack whose one end passes through the said opening of the
wall and then ends up in a push button which emerges from the
barrel and is capable of sliding within the latter, the said push
button having integral elastic strips forming the return spring and
bearing on the said barrel wall; and a piston as defined above.
The device obturating the barrel end on the opposite side from the
push button, is more desirably an attached bottom provided with an
end fitting forming the ejection passage, the said ejection passage
itself being capable of being obturated by a cap ensuring stable
support for the device.
In a worthwhile variant of the invention provision is
advantageously made, at the level of the push button and of the
barrel, for a peripheral severable strip preferably carried by the
push button, this strip normally preventing a movement of the push
button in the direction of ejection, that is to say in the forward
direction, as long as the push button has not been pressed
sufficiently hard to break the strip.
In order that the invention may more readily be understood there
will be described below two embodiments shown in the attached
drawings by way of purely illustrative and non-restrictive
examples. In these drawings:
FIG. 1 is a view in perspective of a toothpaste dispenser according
to the invention, the obturating cap of the said device being in an
open position;
FIG. 2 is an axial cross-section of the toothpaste dispenser of
FIG. 1 in its position of use;
FIG. 3 is an axial cross-sectional view of an alternative
embodiment of a device according to the invention, in its rest
position, that is to say when not dispensing; and
FIG. 4 is a view, in perspective, of the piston equipping the
dosage dispenser of FIGS. 1 to 3.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2 of the drawings, it will be seen that 1
designates as a whole a toothpaste dose dispensing device made
simply of four moulded components and which, therefore, is
particularly cheap to manufacture and assemble.
This device comprises a cylindrical barrel 2 having, in a recess of
its lower end, a projection 3 which is fitted by catch-engagement
in a peripheral groove 4 of an attached bottom 5. Bottom 5 is
provided with an eccentrically positioned end fitting 6 forming an
ejection opening, there being a peripheral wall 7 carrying the
groove 4 and surrounding the end of barrel 2, whilst an inner
sealing lip 8 is force-fitted inside the barrel 2. The bottom 5 is
connected to a moving cup-shaped cap 9; and this cap is articulated
in relation to the bottom 5 by means of a film hinge 10 disposed in
a zone which is diametrically opposite to the eccentric end
fittings 6. The bottom 5, cap 9 and hinge 10 are integrally
moulded. The cap 9 has, preferably on the opposite side from hinge
10, an outer grip projection 11 allowing the user to grip cap 9
easily and to cause it to pivot around hinge 10, thus freeing the
ejection opening. Cap 9 carries internally a skirt 9a intended to
surround the opening 6 in the closed position of the cap.
A frusto-conical inner partition 12 is arranged in the vicinity of
the upper end of cylindrical barrel 2; it is arranged as a funnel
converging in a direction towards the inside of the cylindrical
barrel 2. This partition 12 is provided with a central passage 13
and divides the cylindrical barrel 2 into two compartments, namely
a larger compartment comprised between partition 12 and the
attached bottom 5, wherein the toothpaste is accommodated, and a
smaller compartment which is open towards the top and wherein a
push button 14 of plastic material is slidable without friction.
Moreover, in the vicinity of the cylindrical wall of the barrel 2,
the inner partition 12 has a circular rib 12a. The push button 14
is plate shaped and is guided at its circumference 15 by the inner
surface of the barrel 2 near the top end of the barrel. Around its
circumference the push button has a circular security strip 16
(FIG. 1) which bears on the end of barrel 2 and thus prevents the
push button from being pushed inside barrel 2 before a
predetermined force has been applied to the push button 14
sufficient to break a strip 16 and to separate it from the rest of
the push button.
The side of push button 14 which faces the funnel-shaped partition
12 is kept at a distance from the partition by means of a return
spring 17 integrally moulded with the push button 14.
The spring 17 is formed by two diametrically opposite elastic
strips which bear on the inner wall 12 and rib 12a and which tend
to return the push button outwardly of the barrel 2, that is to say
upwardly. The elastic strips are attached to the flat wall of push
button 14 in its central region.
Push button 14 is extended axially by an actuator rod 18 passing
with clearance through the central passage 13 of the inner
partition 12. Rod 18 is integral with the flat wall of the push
button 14 and is coaxial within the barrel 2 of the dispenser 1,
extending as far as the vicinity of the lower end of the
cylindrical barrel. It carries a rack 19 having a symmetry of
revolution, this rack being formed by an alternation of grooves and
flanges. It will be seen that the first tooth 19a of the rack has a
shape such that it prevents the upward extraction of the rack
through the opening 13 of partition 12. Preferably this end tooth
19a is bevelled, and the opening of the wall 12 is also bevelled to
make it possible during assembly to introduce the rack 18 via the
opening of wall 12 by deformation; extraction is on the other hand
rendered impossible. Tooth 19a thus fixes the top position of the
push button 14 urged upwardly under the action of spring 17.
Within the barrel 2 is a piston 20 which is slidable with
frictional resistance and is constituted by a cylindrical wall 21
carrying at its top part two external peripheral lips 22a and 22b
intended to seal between the inner wall of the barrel 2 and the
exterior of piston 20; at its bottom part the piston has two
diametrically opposite skirt portions 23 each carrying a catch 24
which is to be described later.
Each skirt portion 23 is in fact formed by a sector 23a of a
cylindrical skirt situated in the extension of wall 21 and by a
wall 23b sloping upwardly and inwardly and having its base joined
to that of the cylindrical skirt portion 23a. At their top parts,
the two walls 23b are interconnected by a wall 25 which is
perpendicular to the piston axis and has a central perforation 26
edged by a substantially cylindrical skirt 27 which is slightly
flared in its top part on the side of wall 12 in order to
facilitate the introduction of the rod of the rack. The skirt 27
forms, at its lower part, a frusto-conical circular lip 27a sealing
between the piston 20 and rack 18.
Catches 24 are formed by elastic strips whose free ends are capable
of cooperating with the notches of rack 18 and which are upwardly
convergent to define a catch engagement lip which is near the
sealing lip 27a, but is nevertheless not joined thereto.
To effect the assembly of device 1, the push button-rack unit is
first installed, by introducing the rod of the latter via opening
13 in the funnel-shaped partition 12 and by lowering it until tooth
19a is positioned behind this opening within the barrel 2. Piston
20 is then introduced, via the free opening of barrel 2, and is
pushed down by means of an elongated tool until it occupies the
high position near the inner partition 12. Barrel 2 is then filled
with toothpaste and the closing components 5, 9 are attached.
When the user wishes to dispense a dose of toothpaste contained in
the barrel 2, he pivots the cap 9 around hinge 10 to free the
discharge opening of end fitting 6. After having pointed barrel 9
in the required direction he then merely presses the push button 14
against the spring 17 which produces movement of the rack 18 in the
direction towards the end fitting 6. This forward movement of the
rack 18 causes the catch engagement flaps 24, which engage one of
the teeth 19 of rack 18, to be carried along by the rack. The flaps
24 carry the piston 20 along with them to accompany the rack 18
during the whole of its forward movement, producing the dispensing,
through the opening of end fitting 6, of a dose of toothpaste
corresponding to the distance over which push button 14 and
therefore piston 20 have been displaced. When the user relaxes his
pressure on the push button 14 the spring 17 returns it to its
initial position, carrying with it the rack of rod 18 with which it
is integral.
On the other hand, by reason of the friction of its lips 22a, 22b,
the piston 20 remains in place in its new lower position; as a
result the rack 18 is displaced relative to the piston 20 through
the central opening thereof, this movement being allowed by the
flaps 24 which do not impose any resistance to this return movement
of the rack 18 and push button 14. As a result, when the rack 18
has returned to its top position, the catch engagement flaps 24 are
no longer seated in the same notch of the set of the rack teeth but
instead engage a notch which is further from the push button 14.
The user then replaces cap 9 in position on the device.
Until the piston 20 arrives in its lowermost end position near the
bottom 5, it is possible to dispense practically constant
individual doses of paste by successive pressures on push button
14. It will be understood that, thanks to the seal between piston
20 and rack 18 at the level of lip 27a the paste product contained
within the barrel 2 does not tend to escape via the central portion
of piston 20 and thus all, or practically all, the quantity of the
product contained in barrel 2 has been dispensed by successive
doses by the time piston 20 has arrived in its lowermost position.
Moreover the paste product remains constantly protected from
contact with the air, because of the sealing effect of the piston
20 which achieves excellent preservation of the product.
FIG. 3 shows a dispenser device which is similar to that of FIG. 2
but with the difference that the system of obturating barrel 2 at
its bottom, and the push button 14, have been obtained in a
different manner.
The bottom end of the barrel 2 is closed by a funnel-shaped
attached bottom 28. The conical wall 29 of component 28 is extended
along its outer edge by a cylindrical wall 30 and has at its centre
a threaded hollow end fitting 31 forming the discharge passage for
the toothpaste. The cylindrical wall 30 is provided on the outside
with an annular groove 32 for catchfitting engagement with a
peripheral retaining ring 33 in the inner wall of the barrel 2.
The end fitting 31 may be closed by a cap 34 formed by a base 35
serving as a stand ensuring balanced support for the device 1. The
base 35 has three coaxial skirts, namely:
(a) an outer skirt 36 serving as covering and which, for this
purpose, becomes an extension of the cylindrical wall of the barrel
2 and on which the user acts in order to screw and unscrew the cap
34;
(b) a short inner skirt 37 intended to seal and which for this
purpose penetrates inside the end fitting 31, on tightening;
and
(c) an intermediate skirt 38 comprising an external thread intended
to cooperate with the thread carried by the end fitting 31.
In the embodiment of FIG. 3 the push button 39 is formed by a plate
40 comprising a cylindrical edging wall 40a and having a bottom
face 40b disposed transversely in the top opening of barrel 2; if
required the plate 40 may be surmounted by a detachable cap 41
having an outer skirt 41a coming to surround the cylindrical wall
40a. The return spring is formed by elastic strips 42 which are
attached to the wall 40b near its periphery. At the end of each
strip 42 is a foldback 42a facilitating the bearing action on the
funnel-shaped partition 12.
It shall be duly understood that the embodiments described above
are in no way restrictive and may give rise to any desirable
modifications without thereby departing from the scope of the
invention as defined by the following claims.
* * * * *